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Kudos To These Lady Bikers From Odisha For Initiating The ‘Bikerni-Odisha Chapter’





Kudos To These Lady Bikers From Odisha For Initiating The ‘Bikerni-Odisha Chapter’

With an idea of encouraging women motorcyclists in India and to build a common platform for them, a passionate lady biker Urvashi Patole laid the foundation of ‘The Bikerni’ India in 2011. Thereafter, many women riders from different regions took notice of The Bikerni, which soon started spreading its wings in various states, including Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Gujarat and still counting.

Much recently a group of enthusiastic women riders from Odisha have been hitting the news, who not just initiated the Odisha chapter for ‘Bikerni’ and but also went on their first successful biking trip, to the renowned Ansupa Lake of Odisha.

These Odisha ladies belonging to different age groups and professions have for the first time formed a women’s biking club. Clad in leather jackets and wearing safety gears, they left early in the morning on their trip day, with a common love and passion for riding.  

One of the members named Barsha Priyambada who is a fashion photographer cum graphic designer has been into biking since the last three years. She loves to go thumping on the road with her KTM Duke 250. “It’s not that women bikers are new for the state. There are many girls who love to ride bikes and have been riding for many years but somehow most of us never got an opportunity to show our passion.”

“The group has been formed so that more women can come forward and follow their passion. We are planning to go for a group ride twice in a month,” Barsha added.

Despite being a mother, nothing can stop Proshish Golyan from continuing her passion for adventure.  “I always seek for adventure and that was the reason I went on an all girls’ biking trip to Ladakh in 2014. Since then I became a member of Bikerni India. Few months back, I got to know about enthusiastic riders from Odisha and we planned our very first ‘Bikerni-Odisha chapter’ trip to Ansupa Lake. I hope this trip inspires other girls from Odisha to ride a bike and join us in our next trip” said Proshish who owns a Royal Enfield.Another member Niralee Nirlipta has been into biking for more than 12 years. She started riding when she was in school and her first two-wheeler was LML Vespa. “I have been a lone biker for many years as I never preferred joining any group, but then we thought to form Bikerni and see how other women are riding. When I started, there were a very few girls doing this. Even after being criticised for biking, I never stopped doing things that I love the most. More women need to come forward to show that we are not less than men.”

Arshia Musarrat and Priyanka Ghosal are the other bikers of this group. Since their first successful biking expedition, they have even opened social media accounts of “Odisha Bikerni” which will have all the biking trips’ information of these members along with the updates of new ‘Bikernis’. We hope to see more girls and women joining in the Odisha Bikerni’s next trip.

Pictures Courtesy: Barsha Priyambada

Author: Monalisa patsani

Being into journalism since 2012, Monalisa loves listening to people and narrate their stories. She has been exploring different genres of journalism, but writing about the environment, places and people suits her interest.

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